Sheet transferring mechanism for printing presses



C. F. ROOT Oct. 25, 1932.

SHEET TRANSFERRING MECHANISM FOR PRINTING PRESSES Original Filed Oct. 15, 1923 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR.

N w a i F M m mi Oct. 25, 1932. c. F. ROOT 1,884,258

SHEET TRANSFERRING MECHANISM FOR PRINTING PRESSES Original Filed Oct. 13, 1923 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 l N VEN TOR.

Char/edifice? M r ag ATTORNEYS Oct. 25, 1932. c. F. ROOT 1,884,258

SHEET TRANSFERRING MECHANISM FOR PRINTING PRESSES Original Filed Oct. 13, 1923 3 Sheets-$heet 5 I N VEN TOR.

Char/w F1300? BY E95 8% W792,

A TTORNEYS Patented Oct. 25, 1932 STATES 1,884,258 to i OFFICE CHARLESIFIVROOTQ'OF CLEV LAND, onio, assrerron To; rnacnmnnnaarmcn comrnmaor CLEVELAND; OHIO, A CORPORATION oFonIo SHEET TRANSFER-RING MECHANISM r03 m ma rnnssns.

Original application filedoctober 13, 1923, Serial Ito. 668,287., Divided and this applicat ion fled,

December 9, 1930.

The present application isadivision of my co-pending application filed October 13, 1923, Serial-No. 668,287,.and relates more particularly to the sheet delivery mechanism disclosed in said application along withsheet feeding mechanism. The present improved sheet delivery mechanism, equally with such sheet feedingmechanism, isadapted for use primarily with so-called Gordon or platen printing presses, one object ofqthe invention being to provide a mechanism of the character referred to that may be readily attached to existing presses with little or no alteration in their structure and that, when attached 152 01. installed, will not unduly encumber the press or .be'in the way of the operator. The mechanism is designed to remove successive sheets from the platen of the press bypneu matic suctionand means are provided for go" collecting and retaining in an orderlystacl r the sheets as they are thus delivered.

To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, said invention, then, consists of the means hereinafter fully described and particularly pointed out in the claims,

livery vmechanism as viewed from the right when standing in front of the press, such mechanism being attached'to the right side of the press, whereas the sheet feeding mechanism (not shown) is designed to beattached to the left side thereof; Fig. 2 is aplan view of such delivery mechanism as attached to the press, only a portion ofthe latter being shown; Fig. 3 is a front elevation of such mechanism and press, again only a portion ofthelatter being shown; 418 a top plan view of the receiving table towhich the sheets are transferred by such delivery mech;

anisnrfrom the platen; Fig. 5 is a plan view showing a detail of the construction of such table;'Fig. 6 is a sectionthrough such detail,

the plane-ofthe section being indicated by pliedthrough'tubular shaft 181, arm 180 and Serial No. 501,130.

thebroken line 66, Fig.5; Fig. 7 separately illustrates inplan another portion of the detail in question; and Fig. 8 is a vertical section showing'another constructional de-z tail of the table, the plane of the section being indicated by the line 88, Fig. 4;.

Such deliverydevice (see Figs. 1, 2 and 3) comprises primarily a radially projecting tubular arm 180 of telescoping construction that is carried at the upper end of a vertical tubular shaft 181, being secured in desired angular adjustment about the axis of said shaftby means of a suitable clamp 182. The interior of said arm communicates freely with the interior of such shaft and similarly angularly adjustably secured to the free end of said arm is a tubular extension 183;that is provided with two or more integral sucker tips 184. "Such extension is adaptedto be angularly adjusted about its own axis and the point of attachment thereof to the outer extremity of arm 180 may furthermore be; vertically adjusted, as need not be de scribed indetail. i

The adjustment of the several arts just described is designed to be such t at when the'shaft 181 is swunginwardly, i. e., in a clockwise direction,as viewed in Fig. 2, to a predetermined limiting position and then lowered, the sucker tips 184 on'tubular arm extension 183 will be brought into contact with a sheet on the platen in the open osition of the latter, this being the same position occupied by the platen when it receives a. fresh sheet to be printed. Suction being apsuch extension 183 of the latter, the sheet thus in contact with the suction tip will be picked up by the latter and by a compound raising and swinging movement of shaft 181 in a direction the reverse of that just referred. to, such sheet will be carried in a counterclockwise direction across large gear 3 of the press into position to be dropped ontoa table 185 provided for the purpose. -This table is omitted from Fig. 2 in order not to obscure the underlying parts, but as shown in Figs 1 and 3, it is carried by a hollow shield 185a of outwardly curved or rounded contour that it attached to the adjacent side 100 means, as illustrated in detail in Figs. 4 to 8, inclusive, include an inner guide 186'in the form of a longitudinally extending plate that is adjustably attached to the latter, being carried by a flat bar 187 set flush in the top of the plate and provided with a set screw 188, whereby said bar may be fixed in place with the guide 186 located approximately in alignment with the corresponding edge of the successive sheets as deposited by the delivery device. In addition to such guide plate 186, the position of which will not be changed for afgiven setting of the mechanism, three other relatively movable guides 190 are mounted on the plate 185, each being adj'ustably attached by means of a clamp 191 to a bar or rod 192. As clearly shown in Fig. 5, two of said rods lie in parallel relation to the inner guide plate 186 but extend in opposite directions from a transverse median line on said plate, while the third rod 192 lies substantially on such median line, or in other. words at right angles to the inner guide plate 186. The outer ends of said rods are suitably guided in apertured lugs 193 on the corresponding edges of the plate, while their inner ends have a loose pivotal connection, as shown in Figs. 5 and 6, with an oscillatorydisk 19 1 suitably secured to the table below the surface thereof. Rectilinear movement of the rods 192 is insured by means of pins 195 on the inner ends thereof that are guided in slots 196 formed in a plate 197, the same pins engaging approximately radial slots 198 w in disk 194 to form the pivotal connection just referred to. The disk is provided with a downwardly projecting central stud 199 to which is attached a lever arm 200 that is in turn connected by means of a link 201 with an operating arm 202 on the same tubular shaft 181 that carries the sheet delivery device. A coil spring 203 surrounds stud 199 and is connected at one end to said lever 200 and at the other end to the bearing 204 on the bottom of the plate or table 185 wherein such stud isjournaled, such spring tending normally to rotate the stud and thus disk 19a in a counter-clockwise direction, as viewed in Figs. 4 and 5, whereby the three guides 190 are moved inwardly. However,

oscillation of tubular shaft-181 in a counterclockwise direction to deliver a sheet from the platen onto the table 185, as hereinbefore described, will at the same time serve,

through the medium of the connections between said shaft and the guides 190, to move ingly settle down freely on the table or on the stack of sheets previously accumulated thereon; however, incidentally to the next clockwise swing of the delivery device to pick up a fresh sheet from the platen, the three guides 190 will be moved inwardly and thus shift thelast deposited sheet into predetermined position with respect to the table.

Tubular shaft 181 is supported in brackets 205 attached to the adjacent side frame of the press in much the same way as the two telescoping vertical tubular shafts 5 and 10 are attached to the opposite side of the press. said shaft 181 being'both oscillatory and vertically reciprocable in the bearings thus provided, as will be understood. For the purpose of imparting-such oscillatory and vertically reciprocable movements to shaft 181, means similar to those employed with shafts 5 and 10 are utilized. Thus (see Fig. 1), said shaft is provided near its lower end with an elongated pinion 206 that is adapted to remain in mesh, despite the vertical reciprocatory movement of the shaft, with a transversely reciprocable rack 207. The latter is carried by two parallel links 208 from the side frame of the press and is actuated by means of a roller 209 on its forward end that engages with a laterally grooved cam 210 mounted on the same'shaft 111 that carries thecams whereby the sheet feeding device and associated mechanisms are operated. Adjacent said cam 210 is another cam 211 wherewith a roller 212 on one end of a bell crank lever 213 engages, the other arm of said .lever being provided with a fork 21 i that engages with a. circumferentially grooved collar 215 fixed to said shaft 181. The cams 210 and 211 will of course be so laid out as to produce a resultant swinging and rising or falling movement of delivery arm extension 183 so as not only to pick up and transfer a sheet from the platen to the delivery table, in the fashion hereinbefore described, but also avoid interfering with the movement of the sheet feeding device which must necessarily be, at least in the major part, simultaneous with such movement of the delivery device. In other words, a fresh sheet has to be picked up by the latter from table and started towards the platen at the same time that the previously printed sheet is being picked up from the latter and my invention ay be employed instead of the i3 3 one explained, change being made as regards the mechanism herein disclosed, provided the means stated by any of the following claims or the equivalent of such stated means be employed. j

I therefore particularly point out and particularly claim as my invention 1. In mechanism of the character described,

a sheet transferring device including a vertical support both reciprocable longitudinally of and oscillatory about its axis; a radially projecting arm carried by said support; a secjustable with respect thereto both transverse-' I ly and angularly about an axis approximately ond armmounted on said first arm and angularly adjustable with respect thereto about an axis approximately parallel with that of said support; and a suction tip carried by said second arm.

2. In mechanism of the character described. a sheet transferring device including a Vertical support both reciprocable longitudinally of and oscillatory about its axis; a radially projecting arm carried by said support; a second arm mounted on said first arm and adjustable with respect thereto both transverse ly and angularly about an axis approximate- 1y parallel with that of said support; and a suction-tip carried by said second arm.

3. In mechanism of the character described, a sheet transferring device including a vertical support both reciprocable longitudinally of and oscillatory about its axis; a radially projecting arm carried by said support; a second arm mounted on said first arm and adparallel with that of said support; and a suction tip carried by said second arm, said suction tip being angularly adjustable in an approximately vertical plane.

4. The combination with a platen press including, in addition to the bed and platen, a main shaft and large gear thereon for operating said bed and platen; of a vertical support located immediately to the rear of said gear; a sheet transferring device carried by said support; and a table for receiving sheets delivered by said device, said table being located adjacent the outer face of said gear.

5. The combination with a platen press including, in addition to the bed and platen, a main shaft and large gear thereon for operating said bed and platen; of a vertical support located immediately to the rear of said gear; a sheet transferring device carried by said support; and a table for receiving sheets delivered by said device, said table being located adjacent the outer face of said gear and inclining downwardly towards the latter- 6. The combination with a platen press including in addition to the bed and platen, a main shaft and large gear thereon for operating said bed and platen; of a vertical support located immediately to the rear of said gear a sheet transferring device carried by said support; a hollow shell covering the upper portion of said gear; and a table projectin outwardly from said shell for receiving s eets delivered by said device.

7 .i The combination with a platen press ining moving-part, sheet-transferring means located near said part, and means in common for housing said moving-part and for supporting a stack of sheets in relation to said sheet-transferring means.

9. In apparatus of the character described, a printing press drive including an out-standinggear, sheet-transferring means located near said gear, and means in common for housing said gear and for providing a table for a stack of sheets in relation to said sheettransferring means.

Signed by me, this 8th day of November,

' CHARLES F. ROOT. 

